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Capitalism, Fascism and World War 2

by Gary Sudborough Monday, Sep. 23, 2002 at 12:08 PM
IconoclastGS@aol.com

The relationship of fascism and capitalism as illustrated by the events of World War 2

Most Americans know enough about the Nazi holocaust to thoroughly despise the horrible events that occurred- the torture, executions, concentration camps, forced starvation, gas chambers and the attempted extermination of the Jews. I wonder what Americans would think if they knew that the part of this Nazi terror apparatus which operated on the Russian front was incorporated into the CIA after World War 2. The Nazi SS officer was Reinhard Gehlen, and he and his group were employed by the CIA for their knowledge of the Soviet Union. The SS death squads that followed the German advance into the Soviet Union were very brutal, killing any communists and Jews they found. The CIA used Nazi war criminals like Klaus Barbie, Walter Rauff, Otto Skorzeny and others in South America to impart their knowledge of torture techniques and concentration camps to the police and militaries there. Klaus Barbie was involved in the 1980 Bolivian coup known as the "cocaine coup" that is described in former DEA agent Michael Levine's book The Big White Lie.

There is a close and often ignored relationship between fascism and capitalism. German corporations financed Hitler's rise to power and were rewarded by slave labor. Krupp, I.G. Farben and other corporations used Jewish and Slavic slave labor. Alfred Krupp called girl babies born to his slaves "useless feeders" because they were not as strong a potential worker as were boy babies. These girl babies were gassed.

American corporations invested heavily in Nazi Germany, and many like General Motors and Ford had factories there, which also used slave labor and produced war materials for the Nazis. US corporate investment in Germany accelerated rapidly after Hitler came to power. Investment increased 48.5% between 1929 and 1940, while declining in the rest of continental Europe. American bombers deliberately avoided hitting these US factories, and they received compensation from the American taxpayer for any damage after the war. US oil companies sold oil to the Nazis and oil on credit to the fascists in Spain.

Many American capitalists were openly sympathetic to the Nazis. Henry Ford wrote a book called The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem, and he is mentioned in Mein Kampf. James Mooney, the General Motors executive in charge of European operations, was awarded the Order of Merit of the Golden Eagle by Adolph Hitler. There were op-ed pieces by Nazis like Hermann Goehring in Hearst newspapers in the United States.

The Nazis broke unions, lowered wages, abolished overtime pay, decreased business taxes and increased business subsidies. Their program bears a strong resemblance to the Republican agenda in this country.

The CIA was very concerned about the survival of capitalism in Europe after World War 2 because the anti-Nazi resistance movements in many countries like France, Italy and Greece were led by communists and socialists. Therefore, many bankers, industrialists, judges, lawyers, educators, etc. who were fascists were put back in power because they were the most virulently anti-Communist. Britain even invaded Greece to fight the Greek communists, who had driven the Nazis from their country, and the United States later took over with massive military aid to Greek fascists and former Nazi collaborators. The Italian Communist Party was poised to win postwar elections in Italy. Consequently, the CIA mounted a huge disinformation campaign there and gave millions of dollars to opposition parties.

I have a theory that World War 2 in Europe was at least in part the second attempt to destroy socialism in the Soviet Union. After the Bolshevik revolution, every capitalist nation on Earth invaded Russia in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy this alternative to capitalism. Then, there was a wave of repression against leftists in the capitalist countries. In the United States the IWW was destroyed, socialists like Eugene Debs were imprisoned, and anarchists like Emma Goldman were arrested and deported. Other anarchists like Sacco and Vanzetti were framed and executed.

Although the Nazis attacked other capitalist countries, the focus of their military onslaught was the Soviet Union. Over 80% of German casualties took place on the Russian front, and the vast majority of their military forces were located there. The Nazis lost 300,000 men at Stalingrad alone. The United States stayed out of the war for three long years as Russia bore the brunt of the fascist attack and only entered as Russian forces were driving the Germans rapidly back toward Berlin. American policymakers had to be worried that all of Europe would go communist.

Mussolini said that fascism is corporatism, but I think that is much too mild a description. Fascism is essentially corporate power coming down with a vengeance on the heads of working people, although fascists often mask their real agenda with some populist rhetoric and even call their parties things like National Socialist, etc. I maintain that what we have in most countries of the world today is really fascism, but fascism cloaked in a facade of democracy and supported by an extremely efficient propaganda system. Bertram Gross wrote a book called Friendly Fascism, but I think with George W. Bush in power, it is getting less friendly by the minute.

The ideas I have expressed in this article are so startling to most Americans that I need to give references: The Arms of Krupp by William Manchester, Understanding the F-Word by David McGowan, The Splendid Blond Beast by Christopher Simpson and Turning the Tide by Noam Chomsky.
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yup

by . Monday, Sep. 23, 2002 at 6:02 PM

fascism is the highest stage of neoliberalism

f**k the trilaterals
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Fascism is Socialism

by Douglas O'Brien Wednesday, Sep. 25, 2002 at 12:25 PM

Apparently, apes can read history. They just don't understand it.
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Fascism IS the Anti-theisis of Socialsim

by Belinda Friday, Nov. 08, 2002 at 5:15 AM

Douglas O'Brien in typical fascist rhetoric smears writers here who have told the truth. I have read 100 plus books on fascism and it is the ant-thesis of sioialism which cares for the workers and the masses. Fascism is a war on the working class, privatization into the hands of corporations. Douglas O'Brien has nothing but the tactic of neo-CONS: smears and lies because history and facts are not on his side. Don't you read O'Brien? Try reading Freiendly Fascism by Bertram Gross, Facts and Fascism by Gerge Seldes, Sawdust Ceasar by Seldes, or any factual books on Fascism. Because Fascist history is so ugly they tried to call it national socialism and appeal to workers intitially in Germany. After they were in power they busted Unions and literally enslaved workers under the Corporations (elites) with Fascst Goon Squads.
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism, because
it is a merger of State and corporate power." Mussolini (KNown anti-socilist Fascist Goon)

Does O'Brien also try to invert reality and call our current Corporate Owned Criminal Syndicate Governance "socialist" as it dessimates the poor and middle class and the rule of law dead for all except the wealty.
O'Brien is either brainwashed or a fascist propagandist.
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USA Is Run By a Fascist Junta with An Increasingly Ridiculous "democratic" facad

by Belinda Friday, Nov. 08, 2002 at 5:26 AM

It is telling that all the actions of the Unelected Bush Junta follow right out of Hitler's Play Book. THe 1001 Prooblems oof the 9/11 show it to be nothing more than America's Reichstagg Fire. Readinghistory one will discover that Bush Family has een involved in one Fascist group after another. His grandfather was prosecuted for supporting Hitler: tradiing with the enemy. Our "free" press did not report this when the Lewinskly created soap opera was "front page" tripe. Free press my ass.
Folks, democracy is dead. You live in a Fascist Totalitarian state with a democratic facade. Read Understanding the F-Word and the Politics of Illusion by David McGowan and wake up.
I have read countless non-Orwelian History books ....many banned....and I nowwhy the world seems so insane. The fascists keep it that way. Orwell called it a state of controlled insanity. If we were healthy and informed we's throw the parasites off our necks. Also read how the US Fascist Gov. has murdered 15 million people and over thrown democracies through out the world and installed fascist dictatorships (Written by ex-CIA agent William Blum "Killing Hope"). This bookk will wake you up to the real reasons for all of the misery and wars through out the world as the US dupes the US populace. Over throwing democracy= fighting for democracy. Slaughter = peacekeeeping in the US Propaganda Outlets (corpporate media $$$$ cartes that serve ONLY eleite interests).
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Nice

by Reader Friday, Nov. 08, 2002 at 8:42 AM

Gary Sudborough;
Excellent summation in first article.
Thanks for the references,Belinda.
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Simple

by Simple Simon Saturday, Nov. 09, 2002 at 11:18 AM

Your analysis is shoddy, and your misrepresentations of historical fact are beneath contempt.

When throwing names around as being knowledgeable of torture techniques, you mention Otto Skorzeny. SS Sturmbannfuher Skorzeny was not an expert of torture techniques or concentration camps. He was a commando leader. He was charged with war crimes in connection with Operation Greif. This was an operation in support of the December 1944 counteroffensive in the Ardennes. The soldiers assigned to Operation Greif were outfitted with American uniforms and vehicles, and sent behind Allied lines to confuse the Americans and to seize important transportation hubs. This is a war crime, but it has nothing to do with torture or concentration camps.

Next you put the carriage before the horse when you imply that IG Farben and Krupp facilitated the Nazi regime’s rise to power in exchange for slave laborers. This is preposterous. The Nazi party came into power in 1933. Slave laborers didn’t appear until after the invasion of Poland in 1939. Slave labor was a byproduct of Nazi ideology. Hitler’s intention was to enslave the masses of the East, and work them to death. He didn’t have any plans to maintain a slave workforce. Only when the war started to turn against Hitler did he realize the need to feed and clothe these workers. In conclusion, it was Nazism that created the slaves and not Capitalism.

Henry Ford and others can justifiably be criticized for being anti-Semetic or sympathetic to the Nazi regime. It is important to remember, however, that the vast majority of people in the West were unwilling to stand up to Hitler prior to September 1, 1939, and that Stalin was actively working in concert with him at the time.

The Nazi program was, like all Socialist programs, one of centralized control. All allegiances and interests outside of the Party are to be eradicated. Only the Party matters.

If you want to cast stones about the employment of former Nazi officials in the West at the conclusion of WWII, I suggest you also look at the East. The Russians continued to operate the concentration camps long after the conflict ended.

Finally, your notion that the war was an attempt to destroy Socialism in the Soviet Union is preposterous. The United States provided millions in lend-lease equipment to the Soviets. When German anti-Nazi conspirators approached the West about a separate peace that would allow the Germans to continue the fight against Russia, they were rebuffed. And Mr. Stalin didn’t seem to object too strenuously to Mr. Hitler throughout 1938 – June 1941. His peace-loving soldiers invading and annexing Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia; Invading and forcing a punitive peace on Finland; threatening and then annexing parts of Hungary and Rumania, and then participating in the invasion and partition of Poland (not to mention the cold-blooded murder of thousands of Polish Army officers in Katyn forest). During this same time he made millions by selling Oil and Coal to Germany.

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